We each do what we can do. That's all we can do.
As anyone who is familiar with my writings knows, for the past four years I've expressed my alarm at the systematic disempowerment of everyday citizens -- the 99% -- and the destruction of our democracy. I'm never content to merely identify a problem without trying to identify a solution. Thus my books Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy (June 2015) and Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve (September 2015) focused on ways to address these critical challenges, even given the shredding of our personal liberties and the sabotaging of normal mechanisms for implementing reform.
In developing the ideas for these books, at some point I realized that the militarization of our domestic police forces, our communities, our media, our foreign policy, in fact, just about every aspect of our lives and everything America now collectively does, was central to the control the oligarchy now has over the country and its citizens. This militarization finds its most obvious expression in the constant wars and the insertion of U.S. troops all over the world, the open-ended and ubiquitous War on Terror, and the pursuit of world domination by any means necessary, all of which are steadily driving the country to its own cataclysmic unraveling.
But it also occurred to me that not only was this militarization the main mechanism for reshaping America into an imperial autocracy, it offered at the same time a phenomenal opportunity for its citizens to reclaim their country. I believe that the war machine is its own Achilles heel -- at least until voting has been outlawed and we're all locked away in work slave camps -- in that its abuse of power is so ham-fisted, at core so contrary to the best social and political traditions of our nation, once the majority of citizens understand what is going on, the whole destructive regime of the warmongers can be taken down and replaced with one that serves the greater interests of all Americans. Of course, the major challenge is finding a way to communicate it in a way that makes sense and guarantees a significant number of people will pay attention to it.
This unfolds as my Peace Dividend concept, a historical and political analysis of endemic institutional corruption and abuse in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, the NSA and other national security agencies, Congress and the White House, offering a strategy for challenging and ending the egregious violations of public trust.
The Peace Dividend concept originally appeared and is explored in summary form in both of the two books mentioned above. With the publication of my new book, it now has its own dedicated volume with full explication, justification, and documentation . . .
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World.
Here's the premise: With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, American citizens were promised a "peace dividend", i.e. less money for war, more for peace and a good life for all. The U.S. military under misguided leadership has attacked eight countries since then. The defense budget has exploded, buying a lot of junk that doesn't work and military hardware we don't need.
American citizens have been grossly deceived about the real purpose and agenda of our military exploits throughout the world. As I incontrovertibly establish, we have had over $4.82 trillion of our hard-earned tax dollars taken under false pretenses and wasted with cavalier abandon on unnecessary wars and unneeded weapons. This transparent fraud on the American people has been perpetrated for two-and-a-half decades.
It's time to change all of that. It's time for a fresh new narrative, and a vibrant national conversation. It's time to start thinking and talking about peace again. This book explains why and exactly how we begin.
The Peace Dividend strategy is a direct attack on America’s systemic addiction to war by appealing to the self-interest of its citizens, literally INCENTIVIZING citizens to redirect their thinking and start WORKING FOR PEACE!
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at many of the usual outlets . . .
Amazon (Kindle) / US . . . amzn.to/2cpIRfQ
Amazon (Print) / US . . . amzn.to/2cEhnCb
Amazon (Kindle) / UK . . . amzn.to/2cKXFsV
Amazon (Kindle) / Canada . . . amzn.to/2ciZKdl
Amazon (Kindle) / Japan . . . amzn.to/2cbf3TO
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/2cWxvzd
Kobo (Indigo) . . . bit.ly/2cI8cB6
Apple iTunes . . . apple.co/2cqw7an
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/2cb6Cse
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/2c3mJsl
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
The Peace Dividend Concept . . . Now A Book
